


SHIELD's biggest secret

by iloveitblue



Series: Prompts [49]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Rewriting of the MCU timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-02-06 00:54:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1838449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iloveitblue/pseuds/iloveitblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Clint knows what SHIELD's biggest secret is</p>
            </blockquote>





	SHIELD's biggest secret

SHIELD had many secrets. That was how they managed to stay on the game - by not showing all of their cards. But their biggest secret was known by only two men: The director who kept the secret, and the secret himself.

The secret was this: Steve Rogers is not the only product of Project Rebirth. He was not even the first. Project Rebirth, was a long standing experiment even before the war had started. 

Although Rogers may have been the only successful subject, there was one more person before him. Clinton Francis Barton. Barton was not considered a success because the serum did next to nothing to Barton. Granted that his sight was a lot better but that was basically it.

Little did they know, that along with the enhanced eyesight, Barton also gained better reflexes, and he aged slower than normal people -  _way slower._ When the war had ended and the SSR disbanded, it was Barton who pushed Howard Stark into forming the organization SHIELD.

And as years went by, the directors changed but Clint Barton remained in the shadows. Every once in a while, disappearing for years on end only to be ‘recruited’ into SHIELD.

Now, Fury was a smart man. The moment Clint walked through SHIELD’s doors behind one Agent Coulson, he knew that Fury knew who he was. They never talked about it, there was silent acknowledgement from Fury, and Clint knew better than to mess with a man who had controlled over the organization he helped create. 

So that’s how the years went. Clint going off on missions under Coulson’s supervision, Fury talking to him about classified information that should not be anywhere near a level 7 agent, Fury letting his ‘insubordination’ pass, Letting Clint saunter back into SHIELD with a deadly spy behind him. It made sense, Fury thought, Clint knew what he was doing. He’s had experience after all, more than 50 years at least.

When Phil and Clint had announced that they were together, Fury momentarily wondered to himself why he didn’t see it coming. Then again, maybe he did and he just chose to ignore it. He was happy for them, nonetheless. 

When the Tesseract was found and studied in Pegasus, along with asking for updates about it from Coulson and Selvig, Fury also asked Barton. Clint had always watched over the more important things in SHIELD. The Tesseract was no exception.

Which was why when both the Tesseract and Barton had been taken by Loki, there was no other option than to call in the Avengers. The battle had lasted long, but in the end, they had managed to take Barton back, and Thor took the Tesseract and Loki back to Asgard.

Of course, Clint also knew about Project Tahiti. He was against it at first, but Fury was adamant about it. Clint refused to take part in it, and concluded that he should disappear for a while. 

When Tony was attacked by the Madarin, Clint was behind him the whole time, leading the man to the small barn where Clint knew Harley lived. Harley was a friend Clint had made in the past and he knew that Harley was not one to turn a man away beaten and bloody just because he looked suspicious. After all, he’d done the same with Clint. Besides, unlike Clint, Stark could repay the kid.

When Thor’s disaster happened, Clint was to say the least, surprised. He’d been in Europe trying to follow Coulson, and tagging Melinda May’s calls to the Director. Fury knew this of course, but he also knew that Clint wouldn’t come back. not yet at least. Instead, Clint helped with the evacuation and the fighting-off-the-weird-aliens bit that managed to get through the portal. 

The fall of SHIELD prompted his return however. There really was nothing more to do when all of SHIELD’s secrets were out to the public. All he had to do was wait now. It was only a matter of time until-

There was a knock on his door. Clint swung his foot down from the coffee table, paused his show, took one more sip at his coke and stood to answer the door. 

Standing outside was Natasha, Steve, Tony, and Sam. Clint smirked. “Hey guys, Nice to see you drop by. Why don’t you come in? I’ve got pizza and coke and Jersey Shore.”

Tony’s face grew into that of disgust but they all entered anyway. Clint was already lounging back in the couch, the video playing again when Steve stood in front of the TV. “Wanna move there, big guy? kinda can’t see my show.” Clint craned his neck. Steve turned and shut the TV off. “Hey!” Clint yelled and then sighed. “Fine. You wanna do this now? We’ll do this now.”

He could do this. He’d been preparing for this confrontation all week - since the invasion if he was being honest - The questions came just like he’d predicted they would. Mostly of the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ variety. Clint considered them all his friends now, so they at least deserved the right to know. 

Just a few moments after He’d finished explaining himself, A message came from Fury. Three words that mattered right now.  _We found him._  Clint hurried off, leaving his team in his apartment with a shout of “No wild parties, kids! Or orgies, Tony!” Yep. Experience had made him funnier too. Fine, it was debatable.

With Phil’s team on the Bus; Skye asleep, Tripp knowing who he was and Melinda, Fury and Phil in the office, it was easy to get on board even with the altitude.

Clint pressed his ear to the door, and listened carefully. 

"You know me better than that Phil." That was Fury. "I’ll be everywhere." Yep. Definitely Fury. Ever the drama queen. Fury swung the door open and Clint froze. Fury smirked down at him. "One more thing, Phil. I got you another gift." Fury practically shoved Clint inside, making him stumble, only to be caught by Phil’s arms.

Clint looks up sheepishly and smiles. “Hi.”

"Hey." was Phil’s reply as a small upward tug played on his lips. 

"Agent May, if you please." Fury gestured to the door and May dismissed herself. Fury shut the door behind him and started to talk to Coulson again. "There is one more thing you need to know if you intend to rebuild SHIELD…"

Phil’s brows furrowed in confusion.

"Would you like to take this, Agent Barton? or should I?"

Clint sighed. “I guess I should. You see, Phil, SHIELD has one more secret. One that no one was supposed to know besides me. I don’t know how Fury found out, but I never asked. The Avengers now know about this because Tasha spilled the milk all over the Internet. That included data from the day SHIELD was founded.”

"Clint? I’m not following." Phil says, as he cocks his head.

"I’m the secret. I’m a fellow founder of SHIELD."

"What? but that’s- that’s not possible. I recruited you."

"Well, I couldn’t exactly stay inside SHIELD that long without anyone noticing that i had regressed ageing, now could I?"

"Regressed- but how?"

"I’m sure he’ll tell you the story later," Fury interrupts. "For now, I need to know that you trust Barton enough to have him by your side as you rebuild SHIELD."

Coulson nods his head. “Of course I do. What made you think otherwise?”

Clint grins at him, and gives him a soft kiss on his cheek, the intensity of how much he missed Coulson only having taken its toll now. 

"Then that’s all I need to hear." Fury says before he opens the door. "Oh, and Barton. I’ll be taking your plane." He announces then promptly disappears.

"So, what do you want to do now,  _Director?”_ Clint purrs.

"Nuh-uh. Nope. You are going to tell me that story. Right now."

Clint groans, but complies, nonetheless. He’s never had much power to resist Coulson’s orders. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Here on tumblr](http://promptmephlint.tumblr.com/post/89695875946/my-birthday-is-exactly-a-week-from-now-and-im)


End file.
